


Three

by angstyastronaut



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Gen, Gore, Horror AU, kittens die, self injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27302203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstyastronaut/pseuds/angstyastronaut
Summary: Starclan's gifts are often cruel.Based off of Razmerry's Cursed Three AU.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	Three

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to softsweetbutch/sweetsylveon, who helped me a lot while writing this!

_ Jayfeather _

Cats were like water, and he couldn’t swim.

In a hazy time before time, it hadn’t been so bad. He'd been very young then, but he could remember it was like splashing through a puddle; cold and a bit unpleasant, but you would never drown. But when he came to the lake he felt it all; there were angry cats, sad cats, happy cat, annoyed cats, jealous cats, cats cats cats cats. He didn’t want to go into camp, to that place that felt so intense it hurt. His mother said he had to and he felt fear, but also so much happy and interested from his siblings that he went in even though it felt like a wave swallowing him.

No-one listened or understood. Mother just got worried, Leafpool too. And it hurt, because he was already full of fear, so he couldn’t speak about it much to them. Hollyleaf just thought he was being funny, and got upset when he avoided her because her emotions were just too strong; even though he loved her, he couldn’t be around her much. Lionblaze seemed to understand a bit, but he was always so angry and that made Jayfeather angry, and that made them argue. When he could, he stayed out of camp and collected herbs, but Leafpool always came with him. And she was a whirl of confused emotions, which made him dizzy.

To cope with it, he slept. Which worked, until Starclan showed up, strange and with a fiery edge to their emotions that _ burned _ . Why do you always interrupt me when I’m trying to rest? He asked them. Why did they keep on telling him things? He made them angry, and one night something changed in him after one of them told him he was ignoring his destiny for the tenth time.

He started to feel the dreams. At first Jayfeather didn’t know what they were, but then they got stronger and they started crawling into his head until even when he was awake he’d see them. It made him feel like his body wasn’t there at all and sometimes he’d spend hours or days just sitting there, because everything was just too much and it made him feel like his own self was being eaten away. He could barely do any of his tasks any more; even sorting herbs felt overwhelming. Leafpool and Firestar were talking. He knew they thought he should retire.

He couldn’t take it any more. One night he went to the Moonpool and he begged them for help, the visions of the other medicine cats sometimes flashing in his eyes instead of the dream he was having. There was nothing they could do, they said with little smiles on their faces. His dream faded, and he spent the rest of that night drowning in the dreams of the medicine cats around him. In the morning he ran into the trees, the world too big, the light too much. He hid in his old hiding place until he was found and taken back to camp.

_ Dovewing _

Why did the world have to be so loud? Every day she could hear the fish slapping their tails around in the lake, the birds screaming in the trees. There was no escape anywhere, and she couldn’t filter it all out to listen to important things, like how to hunt or fight.

Cats were worse than the other beasts though. There was no escape from the awful, shrill noises coming from their mouths. She could hear the food in their stomach dissolve in a way that made her stomach churn and forced her to eat the scraps of the fresh-kill pile when there weren’t any other cats around. And she hated their hearts; hearing them twitch in their chests as blood sloshed around made her feel sick if she had to listen to it too long.

Everyone said she had great hearing, and it was a gift. Lionblaze claimed she had a great destiny and it was all for a reason. They stopped her when she scratched at her ears, the sound of oozing blood and healing cuts something to take her mind off all the noise. Why did they have to torment her so?

She tried to leave, but the world beyond was even worse. Where cats didn’t eat them, the world was alive with even more horrible vermin than there was around the lake. Dovewing could tear some of them to bits as punishment, but she couldn’t get all of them no matter how much hatred burned in her heart. Not to mention the monsters and Twolegs… after that time in the Twolegplace she was never the same. The noise felt like she was being crushed even when she tore scratched her ears to shreds and ripped into her eardrums. But it wasn’t the noise that made it feel like her heart had been torn from her chest; it was the realisation that there was no escape.

They made her retire once she returned. Even though the lake was dry now and they needed every warrior they had, Firestar took her aside the day after she returned and said she needed to rest. But she could see the fear and disgust in Thunderclan’s eyes, hear the fakeness of their sympathy. As an elder she couldn’t go anywhere quieter (they said it was safer for her in camp, no matter what), and had to listen to Thunderclan, talk, snore and make dirt around her all day, the noise making her feel exhausted at every hour. Sometimes when it was quiet she’d listen to the distant beavers build their dam and smile. She was glad she hadn’t told her Clan about the beavers, because a Clan this cruel didn’t deserve to know what was happening, and they probably wouldn’t believe her anyway. If they all died in the drought she wouldn’t care.

_ Lionblaze _

Couldn’t they see he was cursed? But no-one would admit that something strange was afoot. Even Firestar wouldn’t believe that his poor grandkits’ affliction was out of the ordinary. So he had to watch Jayfeather get worse and worse until they put him in his own den so his Thunderclan didn’t have to hear him scream all day, never mind that it was outside of camp and vulnerable. And he had to watch them fawn over Dovewing, until she returned with mutilated ears and forced her to stay with the elders despite her objections. No-one was willing to believe he’d felt his sister’s bones break when he touched her, trying to reassure her after killing the cat who’d threatened them all. They thought he was a liar, unworthy of trust and a cruel fighter.

Even Starclan looked down on their plight; no matter how hard he tried to see them all he saw were shadows. They’d left them with a prophecy and a life of suffering. And Thunderclan looked at their pain, and saw cats lesser than them. He’d had enough.

He bided his time; he had waited for years, he could wait for a bit longer. It was only when the moon was high and the stars at their brightest that he lifted himself out of his nest and began.  _ Can you see this Starclan? I sure hope you can. _

Thornclaw was the cat sleeping closest to him; no-one noticed when he sunk his claws right through his neck. He moved onto Berrynose, then Hazeltail. It was only when blood streamed on the floor that Brightheart’s nose wrinkled and she woke up with a cry of terror. He cut it short, and Cloudtail’s screams after that. 

Cats ran, crying in fear. Lionblaze ran after them until he stood in a puddle of gore. They were all dead- he heard movement.

The queens and elders had no time to run; the kits were harder to pick off, but after a few minutes of searching Lionblaze was sure Thunderclan were all dead. Except for two.

Jayfeather and Dovewing were quiet. Lionblaze got as close as he dared. “What happened?” she asked. Jayfeather’s eyes bulged; Lionblaze could see his rage reflected on his brother’s face, but his fear too.

“He killed them. He killed them all,” Jayfeather’s voice was hoarse, so unlike his old one before the world had became too much for him. He shook like a leaf in a gale.

Lionblaze got closer. “No no, nothing like that. I scared them off, that’s all. They won’t be coming back, but they’re fine.” He could tell Jayfeather didn’t believe him, but his brother was obviously too overwhelmed to reply.

Thankfully, Dovewing did believe him. “Thank you,” she whispered. She must’ve been sleeping and not heard what was going on. He smiled and left before she could ask any more questions. There were other Clans to get rid of, and other animals to silence too. By the new moon this lake would belong to the Three, and the Three alone.


End file.
